UnFlaccable

Some may recognize this headline from another article. Well, if no one else was going to write it, I figured I would. Joe Flacco had a truly memorable post-season. I can only hope that history will treat this game as the mostly flawless performance it was to finish a mostly flawless post-season for Joe Flacco rather than focusing on power outages or even Ray Lewis.

The true story of the 2012 NFL playoffs has been Flacco. He certainly had a lot of help from a bunch of clutch catches by Anquan Boldin and the worst defensive play in Divisional Playoffs history, but the finality of what he did cannot be ignored. For all of the prognosticators out there, there is a steadfast rule about the NFL playoffs: If your quarterback throws for 8 or more touchdowns in a post-season without an interception, your team will win the Super Bowl and the quarterback in question will win MVP.

A previous column detailed just how good the stats were for Flacco, even including the first two years of his career. One problem he seemed to have was a lack of comebacks in his post-season career. Well, just like some other wins, he just takes large leads so comebacks are not necessary. Now, he can print his name next to another famous Joe from the eastern part of the United States. He became the second quarterback in NFL history to throw for 11 touchdowns in the playoffs without an interception. The other Joe, of course, is Joe Montana. With Flacco's 63 wins, no signal caller has had more in their first five seasons. While a Niner quarterback on the opposing sideline threw an interception to break a San Francisco Super Bowl passing streak that Montana started, Flacco coolly led the Ravens to a 21-6 half time lead with three touchdowns.

No matter how anyone looks at it, Joe Flacco was able to make throws for 65 yards in the air with a frozen football or find a guy on the opposite sideline. He was able to scramble and throw passes on the run that only Anquan Boldin could catch. He was unstoppable. He was unflappable. He was unFlaccable.

11 Comments

Bengals1181
- 02-04-2013 02:07 PM

Flacco grew up this year.

Barely a year and a half ago many Ravens fans were calling for his head.

Makes me hopeful for my QB, who many are already calling for the head of after only 2 years.

Exactly Rich, nicely done. I noted this thought when predicting both the AFC Championship, and the Super Bowl, but with each passing round, especially after the Denver game, I had complete confidence in Joe Flacco to get the job done, more than any other QB this year. Really, there's no bigger compliment you can give a QB than that.

I'm not sure what next year will bring, but through this playoff run, including all of the 12 teams that played, no one player in the entire postseason played better, nor was in more consistent control of whatever scenario he faced than Joe Flacco. He wasn't the best player in the regular season, and he probably won't be the best player next season, but for the past 4 games, there's been no better player in the NFL.

*EDIT* It should be noted that I am not a fan. That much should be obvious to the regulars, considering my fan affiliation, but I got to see him play a few times in college, and never came off all that impressed, despite what the locals tried to make me believe. To be honest, I thought Pat Devlin showed more at Delaware than Flacco did (and if you follow Hard Knocks, you'll note that there are those that believe Devlin may have a bright future in the NFL, if he ever gets a chance).

I've been very critical in the past, on this site, of Flacco. But he started to convert me a bit last year with that game in NE, and converted me for good in that Denver game (even if they had lost). He's ice. He's cool. It's not always pretty, but he finds a way to grind it out, and get it done. So my hat's off to him. Even with the Ravens being at the top of my list of NFL teams I'm not a fan of, I always respect when deserving players get their ring. No one deserved it more this year than Flacco.

Flacco is a talent. He has an arm, he can extend plays, and he had a very good post-season. I'm hesitant to draw any more conclusions than that from his play. He may be ready to turn the corner (or have turned the corner), or he may be the next Eli Manning, in that he is peaks are high and his valleys are deep. We tend to consider Manning an elite quarterback, when really a much better word is erratic (though certainly talented). Flacco may prove me wrong, but that's where I see him right now.

Flacco is a throwback player. He would fit perfectly with the 70s Raiders or Steelers. I think Rich is right in describing him as unflappable, and making that his calling card. He shares that with Eli, who I would say is his comp. Flacco has the better arm, Eli is better at getting rid of the ball avoiding sacks.

I heard Daniel Jeremiah bring this up weeks ago, but basically he said that finnesse offenses like the Pats and Saints and Colts/Broncos have trouble succeeding in the playoffs because physical team can disrupt them (helped by the tendency for the refs to swallow their whistles in the playoffs). I think that might explain the success of the Ravens and Giants somewhat. He compared it to the NBA, were the game slows down and everybody plays tougher D.

I heard Daniel Jeremiah bring this up weeks ago, but basically he said that finnesse offenses like the Pats and Saints and Colts/Broncos have trouble succeeding in the playoffs because physical team can disrupt them (helped by the tendency for the refs to swallow their whistles in the playoffs). I think that might explain the success of the Ravens and Giants somewhat. He compared it to the NBA, were the game slows down and everybody plays tougher D.

That may be true, but Bill Walsh's 49ers were the very definition of a finesse offense. I think it must, as with every strategy, come down to execution. Walsh's teams (read, Joe Montana) executed at an incredible level.

Wow. Flacco did it; I didn't think that was going to happen but he did and got MVP honors! I know the coaching is WAY different but don't you think that the dominos now fall in Tony Romo's corner? Jerry Jones should be embarrassed & get off the horse. Despite Emmitt Smith's explaining for Romo yesterday, I think this helps to further dwindle Dallas.

I'm curious how Baltimore is going to handle Flacco's contract situation. GThe gift of hindsight tells me they screwed themselves by not extending him last season. Now they have to carve out a contract for a Super Bowl MVP, which isn't going to be cheap..

Yeah, we talked a couple different QBs on your team. It certainly worked out much better staying put and drafting Mariota. He looks much more like the real deal with an average receiving corps. Good...